Finger Tracing Improves Math Skills

IN YOUR DAILY DOSE today is the results of research that demonstrates improvement in math skills when students use finger tracing during learning.

IN MAKING CHANGES today are strategies you can use help your student improve their math skills and things you can do as well.

IN FACT OR FICTION you’ll learn a bit more than you might want to know about the forked tongue.

In The News

In this study, researchers from Sydney, Australia evaluated 275 students between nine and thirteen years. The students who used their finger to trace practice examples while reading geometry or arithmetic material completed problems they had not yet seen more quickly and more effectively, getting more problems right.

Senior Lecturer in Educational Psychology and author, Dr. Paul Ginns, said, “Our findings have a range of implications for teachers and students alike. They show maths learning by young students may be enhanced substantially with the simple addition of instructions to finger-trace elements of math problems. We are cautiously confident such effects could be applied in the classroom and to subjects outside of maths, but more research is clearly required.”

Although this study used students between 9 and 13, the same types of results have been found in older children and adults in other subjects. One of the primary ways copywriters learn their craft is to copy well written sales letters by hand using a pen and paper.

The act of performing the actions with your fingers and hands makes neurological connections that listening, reading or typing can’t do.

Making Changes

Use these techniques with your children at home and yourself. If you have something you want to learn, then it’s time to try doing something differently.

Taking notes are a time honored and proven method of remembering content. Whether you’re in school or just trying to remember something at work, whip out your pen and paper and get started taking notes.

If there is a way to trace over something on paper while you’re reading about the concept, it could very well reduce your learning curve. This includes learning to play a new instrument, run a new software or use a new piece of equipment.

My Daily Affirmation

I include money in my budget for saving and investing. I know how important savings goals are to my financial security and future. I honor these goals. I pay myself first and plan my spending accordingly.

Today, I intend to look over my budget. I like to keep my budget flexible while supporting my spending and savings goals, and I tweak it every so often to see what works best for me.

Fact Or Fiction?

Snakes are fork-tongued for a reason - or at least a physical reason. Click here to find out what they use these little buggers for.